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Wars, Bailouts & Elections

Program #CHON195.
Recorded in Cambridge, MA
on September 10, 2008.

In the economic meltdown the term "in history" is routine. E.g., the biggest bailout in history, the largest bank failure in history, the greatest corporate collapse in history, and the stock market's worst week in history. There are more in histories on the horizon because the fundamental issue is not being addressed. The so-called free market is not free. Washington has forever been intervening on behalf of corporations. Sometimes with direct cash but more often through the tax code. And don't forget all those lucrative government contracts secured by lobbyists. Can anyone see the dots much less connect them? The political class votes for Wall Street while invoking the name of Main Street. Instead of buying toxic assets with taxpayer money why not give the money directly, at no or low-interest, to homeowners who are in danger of foreclosure? Interviewed by David Barsamian.

Speaker(s):

Noam Chomsky, by any measure, has led a most extraordinary life. In one index he is ranked as the eighth most cited person in history, right up there with Aristotle, Shakespeare, Marx, Plato and Freud. The legendary MIT professor practically invented modern linguistics. In addition to his pioneering work in that field he has been a leading voice for peace and social justice for many decades. Chris Hedges says he is “America’s greatest intellectual” who “makes the powerful, as well as their liberal apologists, deeply uncomfortable.” He is Institute Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics and Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. At 90, he still gives lectures all over the world. He is the author of scores of books, including Propaganda & the Public Mind, How the World Works, Power Systems and Global Discontents with David Barsamian.